VANCOUVER
– Effective immediately, all police, sheriffs and corrections officers in B.C.
have been directed to severely restrict the use of conducted energy weapons
(CEWs), commonly known as Tasers, in accordance with recommendations from the
Braidwood Commission, Solicitor General Kash Heed announced today.

Heed issued the directive in accepting all 19
recommendations of Justice Braidwood’s report, Restoring Public Confidence –
Restricting the Use of Conducted Energy Weapons in British Columbia.

Among other actions, the Province will immediately:

·Significantly raise the threshold for use of a CEW to
match Justice Braidwood’s recommendations.

·New regulations will require that CEWs will only be
deployed when all of the following criteria are met:

oWhen an officer is enforcing a federal criminal law, and

oThe subject is causing bodily harm or will imminently cause bodily
harm, and

oNo lesser force option has been or will be effective in eliminating
the risk of bodily harm, and

oDe-escalation and/or crisis intervention techniques have not been or
will not be effective in eliminating the risk of bodily harm.

·Work with police to ensure all officers equipped
with CEWs have access to the use of defibrillators.

·Continue to work with the federal government during
ongoing contract negotiations to incorporate Braidwood’s recommendations with
respect to CEW usage into RCMP policies and standards.

·Request that the federal government add CEWs to the
list of items covered by the Hazardous Products Act.

·Require police to report all use-of-force incidents
to the Province.

·Require all CEWs to undergo regular testing.

“I want to thank Justice Braidwood for perhaps the
most comprehensive examination of CEWs anywhere in the world,” said Heed.
“Adoption of these recommendations builds on the work already underway to strengthen the standards for use, review and oversight.”

Over the past
two years, government has been working on a number of issues that were
subsequently raised by the Braidwood inquiry including:

·Development
of an electronic reporting system of incidents (including CEWs) called the
Subject Behavior Officer Response System.

·Overhaul
of the police audit and inspection process.

·Tabled
amendments to the Police Act to improve the police complaints process.

In addition to changes underway or in development,
during the course of this review the Solicitor General ordered all X26 and M26
model Tasers pulled from service and tested, a use-of-force co-ordinator
position was created, and police chiefs were instructed to limit use of CEWs to
circumstances that threaten the safety of an officer or the public.

On Nov. 19, 2007, the Attorney General ordered a
public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Robert
Dziekanski and a review of the appropriate use and policies currently in place
in B.C. with respect to CEWs.

The report was delivered to Attorney General Michael de
Jong June 22 and reviewed by cabinet. It was tabled with the clerk of the
legislature today by the attorney general. The full report has been released.

Phase II of the
Inquiry, which is looking into the all the events and circumstances of Mr.
Dziekanski’s death, began in January 2009 and is scheduled to resume in the fall.

For more information on government
services or to subscribe to the Province’s news feeds using RSS, visit the
Province’s website at www.gov.bc.ca.

BACKGROUNDER

SUMMARY OF BRAIDWOOD RECOMMENDATIONS AND ACTION

Summary
of Recommendations

Action
Plan

1.1. Seriousness of the matter threshold – officers be authorized to
deploy a CEW only in relation to enforcement of a federal criminal law.

Effective July 23, 2009 the Solicitor
General directed all police, sheriffs and corrections officers in B.C. to
severely restrict the use of CEWs in accordance with the Braidwood
recommendations. The Province will update regulations to ensure that CEWs are
only used in relation to enforcement of a federal criminal law.

2.2. Subject Behaviour Threshold – officers be prohibited from
deploying a CEW unless the subject is causing bodily harm or the officer is
satisfied, on reasonable grounds, that the subject’s behaviour will
imminently cause bodily harm.

Effective July 23, 2009 the Solicitor
General directed all police, sheriffs and corrections officers in B.C. to
severely restrict the use of CEWs in accordance with the Braidwood
recommendations. The Province will update regulations to ensure that CEWs are
only used where the subject is causing bodily harm or will imminently cause
bodily harm.

3. Subject
Behaviour Threshold – an officer be prohibited from deploying a CEW
unless the officer is satisfied, on reasonable grounds that no lesser force
option has been, or will be, effective in eliminating the risk of bodily
harm, and de-escalation and/or crisis intervention techniques have not been
or will not be effective in eliminating the risk of bodily harm.

Effective July 23, 2009 the Solicitor
General directed all police, sheriffs and corrections officers in B.C. to
severely restrict the use of CEWs in accordance with the Braidwood
recommendations. The Province will update regulations to ensure that CEWs are
only used in accordance with the Braidwood recommendation.

4. Emotionally
Disturbed People – that the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor
General approve a curriculum for crisis intervention training comparable to
that recommended by presenters at public forums and require that it be
incorporated without delay in recruit training for officers and that all
currently serving officers satisfactorily complete the training within a time
frame established by the ministry.

The Province, within 12 months, will develop
standards for crisis intervention training for recruits, existing police, and
enforcement agencies and ensure this training is consistent across the
province.

5. Emotionally
Disturbed People – that officers, when dealing with emotionally disturbed
people, be required to use de-escalation and/or crisis intervention
techniques before deploying a CEW, unless they are satisfied, on reasonable
grounds, that such techniques will not be effective in eliminating the risk
of bodily harm.

The Province will immediately direct
police to use de-escalation or crisis intervention techniques with
emotionally disturbed persons as a first response.

6. Subject
Self Harm – that officers be prohibited from deploying a CEW in the case
of subject self-harm unless the subject is causing bodily harm to himself or
herself or the officer is satisfied, on reasonable grounds, that the
subject’s behaviour will imminently cause bodily harm to himself or herself.

Effectively immediately the Province will
direct that CEWs are only used where the subject is self harming or the
officer believes, on reasonable grounds, that he/she is at imminent risk of
bodily harm.

7. Multiple
Deployments – that officers be prohibited from discharging an electrical
current from a CEW on a subject for longer than five seconds, unless the
officer is satisfied, on reasonable grounds, that the five-second discharge
was not effective in eliminating the risk of bodily harm and a further discharge
will be effective in eliminating the risk of bodily harm.

Effective July 23, 2009 the Solicitor
General directed all police, sheriffs and corrections officers in BC to
severely restrict the use of CEWs in accordance with the Braidwood recommendations.
Within six to 12 months the Province will have updated regulations to ensure
that CEWs are only used longer than five seconds where eliminating the risk
of bodily harm hasn’t worked through an initial deployment.

8. Requesting
paramedic assistance – that paramedic assistance be requested in every
medically high-risk situation, preferably before deployment of a CEW or, if
that is not feasible, then as soon as practicable thereafter.

Effective July 23, 2009 the Solicitor
General directed all police, sheriffs and corrections officers in B.C. to
severely restrict the use of CEWs in accordance with the Braidwood
recommendations. Within six to 12 months the Province will have updated
regulations requiring paramedics to be called to medically high-risk
situations which will include, but are not limited to, where a CEW’s probes
have hit the subject in the chest or the charge has lasted beyond five
seconds or is deployed against a person who is emotionally disturbed,
elderly, pregnant, or has a medical condition.

9. Automated
External Defibrillators – that whenever a CEW is assigned to an officer,
that the officer also have an automated external defibrillator readily
available for use.

The Province will take immediate steps with law enforcement agencies
to ensure officers equipped with CEWs have access to the
use of defibrillators within 12 to 18 months.

10. Provincial
Regulation – that the provincial government set province-wide standards
relating to CEWs including, but not necessarily limited to which CEW models
are approved for use; the circumstances in which a CEW may, or must not be
used; qualifications to begin training as an operator, instructor or master
trainer; the curriculum for operator, instructor, and master instructor
training programs; mandatory reporting of each CEW use; and periodic
province-wide analysis of usage reports.

The Province will establish province-wide
standards within six to 12 months to regulate approved models, including when
they can be used, training qualifications, and mandatory reporting, building
on the work already done with respect to training and reporting. B.C. will
also write the federal government urging it to set national standards and
will bring this recommendation to the FPT group we currently co-chair that is
working on national standards for CEWs.

11. Training
and re-training – that the Police Academy be responsible for training
officers in the use of CEWs, as an integral component of use-of-force
training generally and that training be conducted in accordance with the
policies established by the provincial government.

The Province will immediately move to
control all CEW training to ensure consistency across B.C. law enforcement
agencies within 12 to 18 months.

12. Training
and Retraining – that the province’s standards relating to the curriculum
for operator, instructor and master instructor training and re-training
prohibit a trainer’s or trainee’s exposure to the electrical current of a
CEW.

Province will create training standards
that prohibit the practice of exposing CEW teachers and students to
electrical charges. The directive will be sent immediately and standards will
be developed within 12 to 18 months.

13. Certification
of Conducted EnergyWeapons –
that the Attorney General ask the federal minister responsible for
administration of the Hazardous Products Act to add CEWs to the schedule of
restricted products under the Act and to make regulations prescribing the
circumstances and conditions under which such weapons may be imported into,
and sold in, Canada.

This is under federal jurisdiction; the
Province will immediately write to the federal government in support of this
recommendation.

14. Periodic
Testing of conducted energy weapons – that every CEW used by officers be
periodically tested for electrical output according to a testing protocol
approved by an independent body according to a schedule established by the
Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General.

The Province will immediately develop a
standard for routine testing of CEWs, building on the ongoing testing of
currently deployed models that was previously ordered by the Solicitor
General. Testing has already begun and a standard will be developed within 12
months.

15. Testing
After a Serious Injury or Death – that whenever there is a serious injury
or death proximate to use of a CEW by an officer, the weapon be withdrawn
from service and its electrical output be tested.

The Province will immediately require
that all CEWs involved in a serious incident be, without delay, removed from
service and tested.

16. Reporting
on conducted energy weapon use – develop a CEW incident report form to be
completed whenever an officer deploys a CEW; develop an electronic system for
reporting and analysis of CEW incidents and require that every completed
report form be entered into the province-wide electronic system; review
reported incidents for the purposes of informing the development of policy
and training; publish a detailed report on CEW usage; and require law enforcement
agencies to implement a sign out policy, download the data from every CEW and
report any discrepancies, review the use of CEWs by its own officers, and
report on the agencies use of its CEWs.

The Province will immediately require all
law enforcement agencies to submit to the Province a copy of all use-of-force
reports.

17. Further
research – that the Province encourage federal, provincial and
territorial counterparts to develop and fund a national research program for
CEWs that will promote independent, science-based and peer-reviewed research.

B.C. will immediately write to the
federal government in support of this recommendation and will bring this
recommendation to the FPT group it currently co-chairs that is working on
national standards for CEWs.

18. Future
Review – that the Police Act be amended to require that a special
committee of the Legislative Assembly, or an individual appointed by the
Legislative Assembly, begin a comprehensive review of CEWs within three years
to report on implementation of recommendations.

The Province is committed to a review in
three years to ensure the recommendations have been properly implemented and
will report publically on that review.

19. RCMP
compliance with provincial regulation – that the Minister of Public
Safety and Solicitor General require that the RCMP contractually agree to
comply with the rules, policies and procedures respecting CEWs.

The Province will continue to work with
the federal government during ongoing contract negotiations to incorporate
Braidwood’s recommendations with respect to CEW usage into RCMP policies and
standards.